This email charter – created by Chris over at TED — should be a key ingredient in every employee handbook, training program and best-practices guide. It’s brilliant – I’ll make a few adds over the next day but wanted to get this up:

Respect Recipients’ Time: This is the fundamental rule. As the message sender, the onus is on YOU to minimize the time your email gobbles at the other end — even if it means taking more time at your end before sending.

Be Easy to Process: This means: crisp sentences, unambiguous questions, keep it short. If the email absolutely has to be longer than 100 words, make sure the first sentence is clear about the basic reason for writing.

Chose Clear Subject Lines: Here are some that don’t work:

Subject: Re: re: re: re

Subject:

Subject: Hello from me!

Subject: next week….

Subject: MY AMAZING NEW SHOW starts next week at the Vctory Theater at 113-86 Broad Lane, every night 8 PM 6/7–7/12

Subject: TED Partnership Proposal

Subject: Rescheduling today’s dinner with Sarah G.

Subject: Noon meeting cancelled (eom).

EOM means ‘end of message.’ It’s a fine gift to your recipient. They don’t have to spend the time actually opening the message.